During the fragmenting of the Second Party System of JacksonDemocrats and ClayWhigs, the Democratic efforts to expand slavery into western territories, particularly Kansas, led to organized political opposition, which coalesced in Congress as the "Opposition Party." As the Whig Party disintegrated, many local and regional parties grew up, some ideological, some geographic. When they realized their numbers in Congress, they began to caucus in the same way US political parties had arisen before the Jacksonian national party conventions. Scholars such as Kenneth C. Martis have adopted a convention to explain the Congressional coordination of anti-Pierce and anti-Buchanan factions as the "Opposition Party".

U.S. House of Representatives chamber before 1858, when it moved to the New House Chamber currently in use, shown in the 1823 Samuel F.B. Morse's painting House of Representatives.

In the Congressional election of 1854 for the 34th United States Congress, the new Republican Party was not fully formed, and significant numbers of politicians, mostly former Whigs, ran for office under the Opposition label. The administration of Democratic President Franklin Pierce had been marred by Bleeding Kansas. Northerners began to coalesce around resistance to Kansas entering the Union as a slave state. The ongoing violence made any election results from that territory suspect by standards of democracy.

The Opposition Party was the name adopted by several former Whig politicians in the period 1854–1858. In 1860, the party was encouraged by the remaining Whig leadership to effectively merge with the Constitutional Union Party.[1]

It represented a brief but significant transitional period in American politics from approximately 1854 to 1858. For the preceding 80 years, one of the major political issues had been the battle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, which had been fought more on the basis of regional and class affiliations than strictly along party lines. However, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 fractured the Whig Party along pro- and anti-slavery lines, and led ultimately to the formation of the Republican Party, which strongly attracted anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats. For many, the Opposition Party served as a successor to, or a continuation of, the Whig Party.

The party was seen as offering a compromise position between the Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans.[2]

The Whig name had been discredited and abandoned, but former Whigs still needed to advertise that they were opposed to the Democrats. The Know Nothings had found that their appeals to anti-immigrant prejudice were faltering and their secrecy was made suspect, so they sought more open and more inclusive appeals to broaden a candidate's chances at the polls.[3]

The "confounding party labels among all those who opposed the Democrats" have led to scholars of U.S. political parties in Congress to adopt the convention "Opposition Party" for the 34th and 35th Congresses. This term encompasses Independent, Anti-know-nothing, Fusion, Anti-Nebraska, Anti-Administration, Whig, Free Soil and Unionist.[4]

Following the 1854 election, the Opposition Party actually was the largest party in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the resulting 34th United States Congress, the U.S. House's 234 Representatives were made up of 100 Oppositionists, 83 Democrats, and 51 Americans (Know Nothing).[5] That was a very dramatic shift from the makeup of the 33rd United States Congress (157 Democrats, 71 Whigs, 4 Free Soilers, 1 Independent, 1 Independent Democrat). Being the largest party did not lead to control of Congress; the new Speaker of the House was Nathaniel Prentice Banks, a former Democrat from Massachusetts who campaigned as a Know Nothing in 1854 and as a Republican in 1856.

By the 1856 elections, the Republican Party had formally organized itself, and the makeup of the 35th United States Congress was 132 Democrats, 90 Republicans, 14 Americans, 1 Independent Democrat.[6]

1.
Republican Party (United States)
–
The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883

2.
Abolitionism in the United States
–
Abolitionism in the United States was the movement before and during the American Civil War to end slavery in the United States. In the Americas and western Europe, abolitionism was a movement to end the Atlantic slave trade, in the 17th century, English Quakers and Evangelicals condemned slavery as un-Christian. At that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans were also enslaved, in the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, at least a third of them on British ships to North America. Abolition was part of the message of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s in the Thirteen Colonies, in the same period, rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized slavery for violating human rights. A member of the British Parliament, James Edward Oglethorpe, was among the first to articulate the Enlightenment case against slavery, founder of the Province of Georgia, Oglethorpe banned slavery on humanistic grounds. He argued against it in Parliament and eventually encouraged his friends Granville Sharp, soon after his death in 1785, Sharp and More joined with William Wilberforce and others in forming the Clapham Sect. Although anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, colonies and emerging nations, notably in the southern United States, continued to use and uphold traditions of slavery. Massachusetts ratified a constitution that declared all men equal, freedom suits challenging slavery based on this principle brought an end to slavery in the state, in other states, such as Virginia, similar declarations of rights were interpreted by the courts as not applicable to Africans. During the ensuing decades, the abolitionist movement grew in Northern states, britain banned the importation of African slaves in its colonies in 1807 and abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1833. The United States criminalized the international trade in 1808 and made slavery unconstitutional in 1865 as a result of the American Civil War. Historian James M. McPherson defines an abolitionist as one who before the Civil War had agitated for the immediate, unconditional and total abolition of slavery in the United States. He does not include antislavery activists such as Abraham Lincoln, U. S. President during the Civil War, or the Republican Party, the first Americans who made a public protest against slavery were the Mennonites of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Soon after, in April 1688, Quakers in the town wrote a two-page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church. The Quaker establishment never took action, the Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester, Pennsylvania, made its first protest in 1711. Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack, being opposed by leaders as William Burling, Benjamin Lay, Ralph Sandiford, William Southby. Slavery was banned in the Province of Georgia soon after its founding in 1733, the colonys founder, James Edward Oglethorpe, fended off repeated attempts by South Carolina merchants and land speculators to introduce slavery to the colony. In 1739, he wrote to the Georgia Trustees urging them to hold firm, If we allow slaves we act against the principles by which we associated together. Whereas, now we should occasion the misery of thousands in Africa, by setting men upon using arts to buy, the struggle between Georgia and South Carolina led to the first debates in Parliament over the issue of slavery, occurring between 1740 and 1742

3.
Democratic Party (United States)
–
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president

4.
Origins of the American Civil War
–
While most historians agree that conflicts over slavery caused the war, they disagree sharply regarding which kinds of conflict—ideological, economic, political, or social—were most important. Another explanation for secession, and the subsequent formation of the Confederacy, was white Southern nationalism, the primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism. Most of the debate is about the first question, as to why some southern states decided to secede, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election without being on the ballot in ten of the Southern states. His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven states of the Deep South. They formed the Confederate States of America after Lincoln was elected, nationalists refused to recognize the declarations of secession. No foreign countrys government ever recognized the Confederacy, the U. S. government under President James Buchanan refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by the Confederacy. The war itself began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter, as a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war. Thus they were committed to values that could not logically be reconciled, other important factors were partisan politics, abolitionism, Southern nationalism, Northern nationalism, expansionism, economics and modernization in the Antebellum period. The United States had become a nation of two distinct regions and their growth was fed by a high birth rate and large numbers of European immigrants, especially British, Irish and Germans. The heavily rural South had few cities of any size, Slave owners controlled politics and the economy, although about 75% of white Southern families owned no slaves and usually were engaged in subsistence agriculture. Overall, the Northern population was growing more quickly than the Southern population. By the time the 1860 election occurred, the heavily agricultural southern states as a group had fewer Electoral College votes than the rapidly industrializing northern states, Abraham Lincoln was able to win the 1860 Presidential election without even being on the ballot in ten Southern states. Southerners felt a loss of federal concern for Southern pro-slavery political demands, after the Mexican–American War of 1846 to 1848, the issue of slavery in the new territories led to the Compromise of 1850. While the compromise averted an immediate crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of the Slave Power. Part of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, requiring that Northerners assist Southerners in reclaiming fugitive slaves, which many Northerners found to be extremely offensive. The compromise that was reached outraged many Northerners, and led to the formation of the Republican Party, the industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism. Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, after 1840, abolitionists denounced slavery as not only a social evil but a moral wrong. Activists in the new Republican Party, usually Northerners, had another view, Southern defenders of slavery, for their part, increasingly came to contend that black people benefited from slavery

5.
Henry Clay
–
Henry Clay, Sr. was an American lawyer and planter, statesman, and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He served three terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives and served as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams from 1825 to 1829. Clay ran for the presidency in 1824,1832 and 1844, however, he was unsuccessful in all of his attempts to reach his nations highest office. Despite his presidential losses, Clay remained a dominant figure in the Whig Party, Clay was a dominant figure in both the First and Second Party systems. After serving two stints in the Senate, Clay won election to the House of Representatives in 1810 and was elected Speaker of the House in 1811. Clay would remain a prominent public figure until his death 41 years later in 1852, a leading war hawk, Speaker Clay favored war with Britain and played a significant role in leading the nation into the War of 1812. In 1814, Clays tenure as Speaker was interrupted when Clay traveled to Europe, Clay ran for president in 1824 and lost, finishing fourth in a four-man contest. No candidate received a majority, and so the election was decided in the House of Representatives. Clay maneuvered House voting in favor of John Quincy Adams, who appointed him as Secretary of State. Opposing candidate Andrew Jackson denounced the actions of Clay and Adams as part of a corrupt bargain, Clay returned to the Senate in 1831. He continued to advocate his American System, and become a leader of the opposition to President Andrew Jackson, President Jackson opposed federally-subsidized internal improvements and a national bank as a threat to states rights, and the president used his veto power to defeat many of Clays proposals. In 1832, Clay ran for president as a candidate of the National Republican Party, following the election, the National Republicans united with other opponents of Jackson to form the Whig Party, which remained one of the two major American political parties until after Clays death. In 1844, Clay won the Whig Partys presidential nomination, Clays opposition to the annexation of Texas, partly over fears that such an annexation would inflame the slavery issue, hurt his campaign, and Democrat James K. Polk won the election. Clay later opposed the Mexican–American War, which resulted in part from the Texas annexation, Clay returned to the Senate for a final term, where he helped broker a compromise over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession. Known as The Great Compromiser, Clay brokered important agreements during the Nullification Crisis, as part of the Great Triumvirate or Immortal Trio, along with his colleagues Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, he was instrumental in formulating the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and he was viewed as the primary representative of Western interests in this group, and was given the names Harry of the West and The Western Star. As a plantation owner, Clay held slaves during his lifetime, Henry Clay was born on April 12,1777, at the Clay homestead in Hanover County, Virginia, in a story-and-a-half frame house. It was a home for a common Virginia planter of that time

6.
Slavery in the United States
–
Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days, and was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. By the time of the American Revolution, the status of slave had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry, when the United States Constitution was ratified, a relatively small number of free people of color were among the voting citizens. During and immediately following the Revolutionary War, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states, most of these states had a higher proportion of free labor than in the South and economies based on different industries. They abolished slavery by the end of the 18th century, some with gradual systems that kept adults as slaves for two decades. But the rapid expansion of the industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor. Congress during the Jefferson administration prohibited the importation of slaves, effective in 1808, domestic slave trading, however, continued at a rapid pace, driven by labor demands from the development of cotton plantations in the Deep South. More than one million slaves were sold from the Upper South, which had a surplus of labor, New communities of African-American culture were developed in the Deep South, and the total slave population in the South eventually reached 4 million before liberation. As the West was developed for settlement, the Southern state governments wanted to keep a balance between the number of slave and free states to maintain a balance of power in Congress. The new territories acquired from Britain, France, and Mexico were the subject of major political compromises, by 1850, the newly rich cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the Union, and tensions continued to rise. When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, the first six states to secede held the greatest number of slaves in the South. Shortly after, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked the US Armys Fort Sumter, four additional slave states then seceded. In the early years of the Chesapeake Bay settlements, colonial officials found it difficult to attract and retain laborers under the frontier conditions. Most laborers came from Britain as indentured servants, having signed contracts of indenture to pay with work for their passage, their upkeep and training and these indentured servants were young people who intended to become permanent residents. In some cases, convicted criminals were transported to the colonies as indentured servants, the indentured servants were not slaves, but were required to work for four to seven years in Virginia to pay the cost of their passage and maintenance. Historians estimate that more than half of all immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries came as indentured servants. The number of indentured servants among immigrants was particularly high in the South, many Germans, Scots-Irish, and Irish came to the colonies in the 18th century, settling in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and further south. The planters in the South found that the problem with indentured servants was that many left after several years, just when they had become skilled. In addition, an economy in England in the late 17th

7.
Territories of the United States
–
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions directly overseen by the United States federal government. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have a government through an Organic Act passed by the U. S. Congress. Currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U. S. Virgin Islands. They are classified as unincorporated territories and they are organized, self-governing territories with locally elected governors and territorial legislatures. Each also elects a member to the U. S. House of Representatives. Eleven territories are small islands, atolls and reefs, spread across the Caribbean and Pacific, the status of some are disputed by Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and the Marshall Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the territory currently incorporated. Historically, territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United States were still evolving, other territories administered by the United States went on to become independent countries, such as the Philippines, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau. Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959, currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are permanently inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The 11 uninhabited territories administered by the Interior Department are Palmyra Atoll, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, while claimed by the US, Navassa Island, Wake Island, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank are disputed. Territories have always been a part of the United States, by Act of Congress, the term United States, when used in a geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Since political union with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1986, they too are treated as a part of the U. S, an Executive Order in 2007 includes American Samoa as U. S. geographical extent duly reflected in U. S. State Department documents. Approximately 4 million islanders are U. S. citizens, about 32,000 U. S. non-citizen nationals live in American Samoa, under current law among the territories, only persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island are non-citizen U. S. nationals. American Samoans are under the protection of the U. S. with freedom of U. S. travel without visas. The five inhabited U. S. territories have local voting rights and protections under U. S. courts, pay some U. S. taxes, depending on the congress, they may also vote on the floor in the House Committee of the Whole. S. Every four years, the Democratic and Republican political parties nominate their candidates at conventions which include delegates from the five major territories. The citizens there, however, do not vote in the election for U. S. President. S. Incorporated territories are considered a part of the United States

8.
Franklin Pierce
–
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of the nation. Historians and other scholars generally rank Pierce as among the worst of US Presidents, born in New Hampshire, Pierce served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the latter in 1842. His private law practice in his state was a success. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a general in the Army. In the 1852 presidential election, Pierce and his running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham. While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness. All of their children died young, their last son being killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierces inauguration. Pierce was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and his popularity in the Northern states declined sharply after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him. Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West, Pierces administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. Although Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, he was abandoned by his party and his reputation in the North suffered further during the Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln. Pierce, who had been a heavy drinker for much of his life, Franklin Pierce was born on November 23,1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England. Pierces father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War lieutenant, moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick. Benjamin was by then a prominent Democratic-Republican state legislator, farmer, Pierces father, who sought to ensure that his sons were educated, placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at the age of 12. The boy was not fond of schooling, growing homesick at Hancock, he walked 12 miles back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the back to school before kicking him out of the carriage. Pierce later cited this moment as the turning-point in my life, later that year he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college

9.
James Buchanan
–
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is the president from Pennsylvania, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. Beginning in the 1820s, he represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. He defeated both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to win the nomination and his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Shortly after taking office, Buchanan lobbied the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. He allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of sovereignty in determining a new states slaveholding status. He was often called a doughface, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought with Douglas, in the midst of the growing sectional crisis, the Panic of 1857 struck the nation. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term, he kept his word, Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. In response, seven Southern states declared their secession from the Union, Buchanans view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, and so didnt confront the new polity militarily. Buchanan, an attorney, was noted for his mantra, I acknowledge no master, Buchanan supported the United States during the Civil War, and publicly defended himself against charges that he was responsible for the Civil War. Shortly after the Union victory, he published his memoirs, Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of Rebellion and he died in 1868 at age 77. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, historians who participated in a 2006 survey voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Milford, County Donegal, Ireland, one of eleven siblings, Buchanan was the oldest child in the family to survive infancy. Shortly after Buchanans birth the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Buchanans father became the wealthiest person in town, becoming a prosperous merchant and investing in real estate. The family home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel, Buchanan attended the village academy and, starting in 1807, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Though he was expelled at one point for poor behavior, he pleaded for a second chance. Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, which, at the time, was the capital of Pennsylvania, James Hopkins, the most prominent lawyer in Lancaster, accepted Buchanan as a student, and in 1812 Buchanan was admitted to the bar after an oral exam

10.
Samuel Morse
–
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter and inventor. After having established his reputation as a painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of the Morse code and helped to develop the use of telegraphy. Samuel F. B. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of the pastor Jedidiah Morse, who was also a geographer and his father was a great preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the American Federalist party. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions, and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain, Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues, morals, and prayers for his first son. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman, in 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Morse expressed some of his Calvinist beliefs in his painting, Landing of the Pilgrims and his image captured the psychology of the Federalists, Calvinists from England brought to North America ideas of religion and government, thus linking the two countries. This work attracted the attention of the notable artist, Washington Allston, Allston wanted Morse to accompany him to England to meet the artist Benjamin West. Allston arranged — with Morses father — a three-year stay for painting study in England, the two men set sail aboard the Lybia on July 15,1811. In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under Allstons watchful eye, by the end of 1811, at the Academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, to some, the Dying Hercules seemed to represent a political statement against the British and also the American Federalists. The muscles symbolized the strength of the young and vibrant United States versus the British, during Morses time in Britain, the Americans and British were engaged in the War of 1812. Both societies were conflicted over loyalties, anti-Federalist Americans aligned themselves with the French, abhorred the British, and believed a strong central government to be inherently dangerous to democracy. As the war raged on, Morses letters to his parents became more anti-Federalist in tone, in one such letter, Morse wrote, I assert that the Federalists in the Northern States have done more injury to their country by their violent opposition measures than a French alliance could. Their proceedings are copied into the English papers, read before Parliament, and circulated through their country and they call them cowards, a base set, say they are traitors to their country and ought to be hanged like traitors. Although Jedidiah Morse did not change Samuels political views, he continued as an influence, critics believe that the elder Morses Calvinist ideas are integral to Morses Judgment of Jupiter, another significant work completed in England. Jupiter is shown in a cloud, accompanied by his eagle, with his hand spread above the parties, Marpessa, with an expression of compunction and shame, is throwing herself into the arms of her husband

11.
34th United States Congress
–
It met in Washington, D. C. from March 4,1855 to March 4,1857, during the last two years of Franklin Pierces presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Seventh Census of the United States in 1850. The Whig Party, one of the two parties of the era, had largely collapsed, although many former Whigs ran as Republicans or as members of the Opposition Party. The Senate had a Democratic majority, and the House was controlled by a coalition of Representatives led by Nathaniel P. Banks, March 30,1855, Elections were held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians crossed the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body, july 2,1855, The Kansas territorial legislature convened in Pawnee and began enacting proslavery laws. November 21,1855, Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence began with leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces. No party had controlled a majority of the seats, and more than 21 members vied for the post of Speaker, the election took 133 ballots and two months with Nathaniel P. Banks winning over William Aiken, Jr. by 103 to 100 votes, Banks, a member of both the nativist American Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress. January 24,1856, President Franklin Pierce declared the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion, January 26,1856, First Battle of Seattle, Marines from the USS Decatur drove off Indian attackers after an all-day battle with settlers. February,1856, Tintic War broke out in Utah February 18,1856, The American Party nominated their first Presidential candidate, may 21,1856, Lawrence, Kansas captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. Sumner was unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered, frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States. November 17,1856, On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, January 9,1857, The 7.9 Mw Fort Tejon earthquake affects Central and Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. August 18,1856, Guano Islands Act, ch,164,11 Stat.119 January 26,1855, Point No Point Treaty signed in the Washington Territory. July 1,1855, Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute ceded their land to the United States, the count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of this Congress. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the Changes in membership section, during the elections for this Congress, opponents to the Democrats used the Whig party label inconsistently and not at all in some states. Hence in this Congress, and in accordance with the practice of the Senate and House and this is the first example in U. S. history of a form of coalition government in either house of Congress. The parties that opposed the Democrats joined a coalition and formed the majority, the Know-nothings caucused with the Opposition coalition. Banks Democratic Caucus Chairman, George Washington Jones This list is arranged by chamber, senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district

Historians debating the origins of the American Civil War focus on the reasons why seven Southern states declared their …

The Battle of Fort Sumter was a Confederate attack on a U.S. fort in South Carolina in April 1861. It was the opening battle of the war.

President Andrew Jackson viewed South Carolina's attempts to nullify the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 as being tantamount to treason. The issue of states' rights would play a large role leading up to the Civil War near to 30 years later.

Violent repression of slaves was a common theme in abolitionist literature in the North. Above, this famous 1863 photo of a slave, Gordon, deeply scarred from whipping by an overseer, was distributed by abolitionists to illustrate what they saw as the barbarism of Southern society.